Cassandra 23: A Midsummer Night's Dreaming

June 21st, 2000 - South West England

As we made our way back to XXXXXXXXX Street I felt that familiar dread coming over me, once again we were plunging into deep waters with little idea of what we faced or how to defeat it. It was with some relief that we regained the security of the safehouse – while we'd been in the streets I had the feeling that a hundred eyes were watching my every move.

The first item of business was to inspect Mr. J's case – before we attempted to open it we decided that it would be wise to check that there were no alarms or traps protecting the contents. Luke and I put our heads together and looked over the case, checking for trembler switches, induction triggers or anything else that looked out of place. After a thorough inspection lasting almost five minutes we could find nothing and asked Hammer and Jones to force the case open. There was a collective exhalation of held breath when the case was safely forced open.

Inside we found the mission's briefing, a number of papers referring to an incident off the New England coast involving a nuclear attack submarine, and a strange piece of jewellery. Upon closer examination this turned out to be a tiara but one of exquisite workmanship and curious design, vaguely middle eastern but with hints of other, stranger influences. This "crown" held an almost hypnotic fascination but we eventually dragged our attention away from it to the other items in the case.

The briefing paper gave more detail about San Graal, letting us know that his real name was Raymond Langton and providing us with his address. There was also a section addressed specifically for me, which I perused later. We also found a number of papers relating to the event off the New England coast. This document, which referred to an encounter with unidentified, aquatic creatures that damaged a Los Angeles class submarine, struck a chord. Surely this must refer to the monstrous race known as Deep Ones who Professor Phiness wrote of in his journal – could those sinister creatures be involved in the disappearances of Mr J. and San Graal? It seemed unlikely but impossible to dismiss completely. There was also a copy of the local newspaper in the case, out of which fell a flyer for a Pagan Gathering to be held at the College later that evening – once again, it could be unconnected, but I didn't think so.

After some discussion we decided to split into two groups, one would go to search San Graal's flat while the other would avail themselves of the facilities of the safehouse, checking through the extensive library and accessing the near infinite information resources of the world wide web. The selection of the groups was relatively straightforward, there were only three of us who had any skills in research so we'd have to work through the archives while the others searched the missing man's flat.

Mortimer and I dredged through the racks of books that made up the library of the house in XXXXXXXXX Street – initially we both drew a blank as volumes on witchcraft, voodoo and the occult provided us with no information which we could use. Frustrated, Mortimer began flicking through the other books and stumbled across a curious reference to a Robert De Langton in a book on the folklore of Gloucestershire. Surmising that this may be an ancestor of the man we search for he read on.

NEXT...

All material on these pages relates to fictional situations, characters and organisations,part of an ongoing murder mystery type adventure game, and in no way reflects any real interest or belief in the paranormal, espionage, etc, etc. It's just a game chaps!

Last Updated:27th August 2000